Poll

Bonnie Strassell - Owen County Historical Society

In early America, inns offered overnight places of rest to weary travelers. Many of these stops were built along stagecoach routes and provided for the needs of travelers, including food, lodging, stabling, fodder for the traveler’s horse and fresh mounts for the mail couch.

As the oppressive heat of August bears down upon Owen County, local churches make preparations for their annual revivals.
Revivals, or camp meetings as they were called in early Kentucky, beckoned the faithful and the penitent and presented the opportunity to listen to sermons, enjoy fellowship with other believers, partake in communion, and renew one’s Christian walk.
An entry in Mariam Houchens’ book, “The History of Owen County, Kentucky,” written by Mrs. Ira L. Arnold, described a Squiresville Baptist revival in August 1900.

In the 1830s the Second Great Awakening spread like wildfire across frontier Kentucky planting deep religious roots along the way.
During the same decade, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson, was reelected president, the Oregon Trail beckoned the out to the western frontier and staunch American patriots were slaughtered at the Battle of the Alamo.

She’s a home-grown girl and her down-home humor danced about the room like a tonic.
Owen County Mother of the Year is just one of her titles, but on any given day, whatever hat Melody Stafford wears is sure to be overflowing with love and laughter, at times accompanied by lively antics.

Some seem to be made up of all angles and sharp turns, and they never forget good manners. Others are pillow-soft, whose laps are wide and inviting and whose deep laughter somersaults from one end of a room to the other.

They are known as grandmother, grandma, granny, mamaw, nana or some other term of endearment, and they fill our bellies with treats, our hearts with joy and our lives with a touch of magic.

Early Kentucky settlers had little time to socialize. The arduous work of building cabins in the wilderness, providing food for their families and battling Indians and the elements provided limited opportunities for quilting bees, rifle frolics and square dances.

By the middle 1800s communities had sprung up in the Owen County area, and churches were formed to provide folks a place to hear the Word of God. Church gatherings also gave countians the opportunity to socialize with neighbors and friends.

After the Revolutionary War until well into the 19th century, a group of dedicated stalwart men traveled the wilderness of America to spread the Gospel throughout the newly formed republic.

With Bible in pocket and gun in hand, early circuit riding preachers left an indelible mark upon America and the American people; and through their untiring efforts they fanned the flames of religious fervor that spread across the land like a wildfire.

With a variety of hair-raising twists and turns, the narrow road snakes along from Highway 22 to Perry Park. On its travels it passes through the once thriving community of Squiresville, and the road itself took on the same name.

Early Squiresville family names, Arnold, Ligon, Lusby, Minor, Minch, Reeve, Montgomery, Morgan, Nuttall, Thomas, Stivers, and others are still prevalent in the area today.

The small granite marker seemed insignificant surrounded by larger, more elaborately carved tombstones. The name etched on top of the stone, Colorado Grant, was unknown to most, yet the man buried beneath the gravestone truly touched the lives of Owen countians in the early 1900s, for he gave them a glimpse of the western frontier.

On a hot day a few weeks ago, as sunlight bounced off tombstones and baked visitors, the Owen County Historical Society and the Owen County Public Library joined together to visit Owen County’s past.